English Tabor Pipe

Fingering Chart

byStephen Rowley

For d tabor pipe

The English Tabor PipeThe English Tabor Pipe is a simple instrument to play. These charts provide you with thebasic fingering suitable for a large percentage of the English folk dance music repertoire.

The pipe is primarily a diatonic instrument, which means that normally it plays only thenotes in the scale and none of the accidentals. A dextrous player can learn to ‘half- hole’the notes to extend the possibilities.

It is very suitable for learning to play by ear, and once the scales overleaf have beenmastered, it should be easy to pick up tunes.

Keys

Although the instrument is available in several keys, the D pipe is the most common andeasily available. The D instrument enables one to play in the keys of D, G and Emin.These are all popular keys for the English dance repertoire.

Repertoire

The instrument was widely used in royal and provincial households in C15th for socialand professional dance as well as processions, and consequently much of the secularearly music repertoire is well suited.

The pipe continued into the C17th as a dance instrument often accompanying dancesfrom the Playford collection. In the C18th taborers were more likely to be streetmusicians. Many of the folk tunes from John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera are suitable.

The pipe and tabor just survived into the C20th as a morris dance instrument and you willfind that most Cotswold morris tunes fit very well. Many morris tunes start with a ‘rising4th’ and fit the G scale best.

Playing the Tabor

Taborers are named as such because they lead with the tabor. Originally a danceinstrument the rhythm was more important than the tune.

In England today many kinds of tabor are played. The small shallow tabor isdistinctively English, but a variety of deep tabors are also popular.

Small tabors can be suspended from the left hand, whilst larger drums are often hungfrom the elbow or shoulder. By tradition the tabor is fitted with a single or double gutsnare on the drum head that you strike, known as the ‘batter head’.

To begin with, learn a tune by heart on the pipe. A march would be a good choice. Then,forget the pipe and just practice beating the simple rhythm with the right hand. Once youare comfortable with the rhythm, you can try adding the tune. It is easier than it looks.You can practise the tabor part anywhere you hear music, for example listen to a tune onthe radio and beat out the rhythm with the right hand.To learn more: The Taborers Society: www.pipeandtabor.org Stephen Rowley © 2007 steve@artension.com

G Major Scale on D Pipe

Getting Started

Carefully cover all the holes, getting a cleantone. Then practice overblowing(blowing soft, medium, hard, harder, etc) tounderstand the principle. After you havemastered that - try the D scale, and find apopular tune that fits into that scale.

NB. The lowest notes on the instrument,shown with ‘no overblow’, are very quiet andof little practical use. The range of theinstrument really starts with the D note on thefirst overblow.

Holding the Instrument

Hold the pipe between the ring and littlefingers of the left hand. This leaves the otherfingers and thumb free to cover the holes (thesingle thumb hole is positioned on thebottom of the instrument).

You can cover theholes using eitherthe pad of the finger-tip (above), or thefleshy part of the2nd joint (left).